Making a Victorian Mourning Dress: The Skirt
This autumn’s big project is the making of a Victorian mourning dress. This will be a series of three or four parts and in the first part, I’ll make the mourning skirt. This dress has been something that I have wanted to make for ages and it works nicely for Halloween. I found this nice and simple 1894 pattern from the online shop called Ageless Patterns. The shop is a bit hard to navigate, but all the patterns are actual historical patterns except that they have seam allowances and grainlines and some other helpful markings added. I think the dress would have been pretty modest at the time of the…
How I carved my own corset busk
You can buy corset busks but making one yourself is actually easy and fun. All you need is a piece of wood and a Dremel tool and some paint and wood wax to decorate the results! I have made now two corset busks for my 1830s/1840s corset and I took inspiration from old Finnish and Karelian 19th-century embroidery patterns. This post contains affiliate links. The tools and materials I have had my Dremel tool for years and the kit I have resembles the one I linked down below. This set has a good amount of basic tips plus the flex-shaft attachment I used for my carving. However, you don’t necessarily…
A Romantic Era Corset from Old Curtains
I made myself a romantic era i.e. 1830s-1840s corset and a corded petticoat using a pattern by Black Snail Patterns.
Wearing your grandma’s curtains or making a regency dress out of recycled materials
How can you use recycled materials in historical costuming? What are my tips in finding the best materials in thrift stores?
A folk vest and an apron from Askola, Finland
I made a Finnish folk vest and an apron from Askola village in Finland. These garments are based on museum items from early 19th century.
Time-traveling to the Iron Age with my daughter
I made an Iron Age Finnish costume for my daughter so that we can take part in events together. Also, I did some leatherwork...
A pink lolita-style dress
I sewed my daughter a Japanese sweet lolita style summer dress from pink cotton gingham. Decorated with lots of ruffles and bows, of course!
A Victorian lingerie dress
Lingerie dresses are those pretty frilly dresses that make the iconic Edwardian look with their lace inserts and pale colours. However, they first appeared in the 1890s. For a long time, I have wanted to make my own but sourcing that much lace was a problem. This kind of dress can use hundreds of euros worth of cotton lace which is way out of my budget. Then I had a stroke of luck and I found huge rolls of lace at the local Recycling centre. These rolls had hundreds of metres, some several kilometres worth of lace and they only cost about 15 to 20 euros each. Admittedly the lace…
Weaving my own fabrics for my folk costume!
I spent 2 months weaving myself fabrics for my folk skirt and vest. I was slow but I learned a lot in the process.
Adele dress from the new book “Helmat”
My book review of the new Finnish sewing book Helmat and the Adele dress I chose to make using a pattern from the book.
